The Fish Sniffer

by Scott Feist

Over the past year I’ve read a lot about how each Pautzke pro cures their eggs slightly different. All these methods work, but my job is to put eggs on my client’s hook that work for the Sacramento River, rather than some place in New York, Idaho or Washington. Regardless of where you are fishing there’s a perfect egg fine-tuned for your local fishery.

I do more work than most to ensure that egg is tuned for Northern California’s big water and deep Sacramento River holes. By combining Pautzke’s Fire Power (pure krill power), FireCure and BorX O Fire we use an egg that has brought limits almost every day this season.

The eggs I cure aren’t a secret recipe. It’s just what I use and catch fish with daily.
 These eggs hold up for the fishery we have. They are the right color and have the exact firmness necessary for the Sacramento.

Having good eggs make or break your day. I drift around people all day and they wonder why we are getting bit and they aren’t. The key is to have different bait than the next guy. Here salmon are so keyed into the krill scent that I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to use a lot of it. Here’s how I cure eggs.

Curing King Eggs: The Sacramento River Special 

First butterfly the eggs open and apply Fire Power. When I butterfly my eggs, let’s say it’s a 12-inch skein; I’ll cut the skein in half. From there, before I put the Fire Power on. I like to shake Fire Power on it to let the krill get in on the initial soak in. I know FireCure has krill in it, but our fishery is krill driven. I like to use more.

Next sprinkle Fire Cure on the skeins. To me, it’s important to get the red FireCure between each flap of the egg (I use red, but pink is also popular here). If you just shake cure on top of the skein sometimes you won’t cure them all the way through. It’s important to lift those flaps and make sure the cure gets in-between them.

With all my powder applied, it’s time to place the Fire Cure eggs into jars. This varies from quart-to-pints depending on how many eggs you are curing. I’ll let them sit for an hour in room temperature, rolling them around a few times prior to refrigerating.

Now it’s time to let the cure work. Place the jar in the refrigerator for three days. Flip your jars once in the morning and once in the evening. Don’t let them just sit. It’s important to roll them once or twice a day.

After the three-day FireCure process I remove the eggs from the jars and place them on paper towels to dry them out. Depending on how hot it is let them rest on the towels for 30 minutes to an hour. I also put a paper towel on top of the eggs to pull out additional moisture that didn’t reabsorb during the three-day process.

Nevertheless, in some fisheries wet eggs work. In that case this would be the final step, but I like to take it to the next level by firming them up a little bit to make them golden. However, for some these eggs are perfect and ready to fish.

For me the next step is to reapply Fire Power to the eggs. I simply remove the top paper towel so eggs are exposed. I generously re-shake the Fire Power on the egg to turbo charge them.

In order to dry the eggs out and toughen them, I’ll shake natural BorX O Fire on both sides of the skein. These eggs will now be covered in white and brown, from the Fire Power and BorX O Fire. That’s good. When learning this process be conservative with the BorX O Fire until you know how it works. Keep in mind, I use natural, but if you want to get a deeper red, feel free to use red BorX O Fire.

For storing the eggs I use a technique I call the Burrito Roll. To make the roll I roll out a few sheets of paper towels and place two skeins on them. Then, I’ll roll them into a burrito. From here, place them into a gallon Ziploc bag, roll it up to push the air out and date the bag. In 24 hours you’ll notice the paper towels are soaked. 

Do a diaper change. Re-roll them with new paper towels and refrigerate. From here I like to let the eggs sit in the fridge for 3-5 days. Letting them sit allows the krill to set in and absorb more thoroughly, which pays dividends while you’re back bouncing or drifting roe.